A Contingency Approach to Marketing Mix Adaptation and Performance in International Marketing Relationships*

In this research, the authors extend a contingency perspective of international marketing in an exporting context by considering how internal and external forces of the firm explain adaptation of the marketing mix in export markets. The impact of marketing strategy adaptation and past performance satisfaction on current period satisfaction with performance is also considered. A survey of over 500 export managers indicates that external forces play a greater role in explaining marketing strategy adaptation than do internal forces. Moreover, satisfaction with performance improvement in the current year is affected (i) directly by the internal forces of the firm, (ii) indirectly by external forces, and (iii) both directly and indirectly by satisfaction with the preceding year’s export performance. Implications for the management of exporting relationships also are discussed.